I have exhausted all herx from the first combination and since moving onto the second combination I have started to herx mildly again.

One significant progress is that I have been able to train harder than I have in quite a while – and it has been a very good feeling. Being able to train a little harder has renewed my enthusiasm for running the club which, I must admit, hasn’t been at a high recently.

Herx is limited at the moment to the odd sporadic joint pain, mild fluey sensations, a little stomach ache, mild fatigue and mild coughing on exertion. Also, as part of the herx package this time, is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster but it is quite manageable.

The good news is that the psoriasis continues to disappear and the only stubborn bits left are spots on my hands and forearms – there is next to nothing anywhere else. I also continue to sleep very well indeed every night, feeling very refreshed every morning – it is hard now to imagine how I ever coped!

No kidney stones either!

I have now finished my Masters degree and it is a very strange feeling to have so much free time on my hands without the nagging feeling that I should be back in my office glaring at management research articles. It is great!! It brings to the end of 4-years of very hard slog and studying as an adult with a family, working full-time and running the karate club while being so ill has been one of the hardest things that I have ever done! But, as the saying goes…it is better to burn out than to fade away!!

I still have a bit of a nail-biting wait while my dissertation thesis is being marked. I have an A- average to date and if I can get an A- grade for my thesis, then I will get the first class honours – watch this space!

I plan to take a fairly lengthy study break before I commence on the PhD.

My 6-month contract as a Business Analyst with Genesis Energy at the Huntly Power Stations is drawing to and end. The money has been great, but the work itself has been exceedingly dull due to poor management. It is unlikely that I can return to academic lecturing at the moment as most of the tertiary institutions in NZ are still having a lack-of-students crisis. I am therefore frantically looking for new work. Nothing definite yet, but I have several interviews lined up, so things are looking quite rosy.

I still have three more antibiotic combinations to exhaust after I have finished the current one, so the story isn’t quite over yet.

Cheers